Spanning more than 50 years, Friedrich Muller

Spanning more than 50 years, Friedrich Muller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as a Sanskrit scholar and culminated in virtually every honor that European governments and learned societies could bestow.

3 Explanations

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Richa Chandra

If the ||'sm wouldn't have been there - began in...culminated in...

Then "began with" would have been correct?

Jan 4, 2016 • Comment

Cydney Seigerman, Magoosh Tutor

Yes, "to begin with [something]" is a correct idiomatic expression, and it would be correct to say Müller's career "began with" an apprenticeship.

Jan 4, 2016 • Reply

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Shray Taneja

Do we have an explanation in order to choose between began in and began with?

Nov 19, 2015 • Comment

Cydney Seigerman, Magoosh Tutor

Hi Shray :) The parallelism with "culminated in" helps us to choose between "began in" and "began with" in this sentence. Additionally, and as Mike says in the explanation video, we need to use the correct idiom "apprenticeship as," in addition to the correct reference to Müller's career and not Müller himself. Answer Choice B is the only one that satisfies all of these requirements for the sentence to be correct. I hope this helps :)

Nov 20, 2015 • Reply

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Mike McGarry, Magoosh Tutor